My five days back in SA from the UK: one foiled armed carjacking, one petrol bomb hurled at a house, an armed carjacking and house robbery — all within a 400m radius of my house. Let’s not forget an alleged dealer’s friend looking to intimidate me within earshot of the cops. I live in a […]
News/Politics
Posted inNews/Politics
Scotland: A Petri dish for the virus of nationalism
More than 40 observers from a Canadian separatist movement arrived in Edinburgh this week for the final days of Scotland’s independence referendum. It was a small marker that whatever the outcome – potentially a name change from United Kingdom to Untied Kingdom – this was an event that is going to reverberate for a long while. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Frolicking failed the Mbete no-confidence motion
The motion of no confidence against National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete has come and gone, and the ANC predictably used its majority to protect their party chairperson, just as Mbete is accused of using her office to protect Luthuli House and shield its Number One in the National Assembly. While the democratic will of the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
What could Scottish independence mean for us?
On Thursday, voters will decide whether Scotland will secede from the rest of the UK — a union that has lasted several hundred years. Although this doesn’t seem too important for people outside the UK, there is the potential for great change (or disaster?) following the outcome of the poll. While some South Africans have […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Brett Bailey’s human zoo and discourse bunfight
Brett Bailey, an award-winning South African theatre director and artist, thought it would be a brilliant idea to recreate a painful period of colonial history by reconstructing what turns out to be a human zoo as a traveling art installation. In his mind this was going to be a smart aesthetic reminder to the world […]
Posted inEquality, Media, News/Politics
Leave Judge Masipa alone
I have little interest in the Oscar Pistorius trial. I empathise with the loss of, and damage to, life as a result of Pistorius’s actions. This case has, unfortunately, been given more attention than it should. The fact that the victim, and the accused, are well-known, white, moneyed, and privileged, has resulted in this case […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Time to pull thumb, Mr President
Some of President Jacob Zuma’s top people were all thumbs this week. First up was deputy Defence Minister Kebby Maphatsoe, who also heads the party’s Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) Military Veterans’ Association. Speaking at a Soweto memorial service, he accused the Public Protector Thuli Madonsela of being an agent for the United States Central Intelligence Agency. […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, News/Politics
Anti-homosexuality legislation in Africa: The Hart-Devlin debate revisited
The news this week that The Gambia has passed a Bill that further criminalises homosexual conduct and imposes life sentences in cases of “aggravated” homosexuality, along with the continued coverage of the constitutional fate of similar legislation in Uganda, provides an occasion to revisit the most famous debate about the criminalisation of homosexuality in the […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
The problem with being previously disadvantaged
“But we’re not previously disadvantaged … we’re not underprivileged” my students tried to reason with me recently. We were talking about school issues and the issue of the school’s identity came up. I teach at a fairly new school in Cape Town which has been dubbed as a maths and science-focused school for students from […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Don’t talk to me about race or blackness!
It was one of those easy and relaxed days over the weekend. I was in a group of family and friends enjoying drinks, snacks and good company. After all, we had been invited to hang out and just catch up. I was aware that this was an exclusive black group in a so-called former white-only […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Egypt: Time to end the diplomatic farce
Egypt’s regime is at it again. Having stuffed its notorious prisons with political dissenters and wantonly murdered hundreds of protesters, the military-backed government has issued an ultimatum to civil-society organisations. They must register under a regressive, Hosni Mubarak-era NGO law, which empowers officials to weed out civil society organisations deemed critical of state policy — […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Kate’s pregnant again! But wait, why do we care?
The world is abuzz with the news that Kate is pregnant … again! Besides the fact that most women are already jealous of her post-pregnancy blowout, why do we care? Like the five stages of grief, there is a protocol for receiving royal baby news (assuming you’re not a royalist): * Anger — Why am […]